Tag: vote

Hi readers! I’ve taken most of the last week or so off to give myself a little brain break and recharge for the fights we still have ahead of us. I was so inspired by the millions (!!!) of people who turned out to march this past Saturday. We got under Trump’s skin and showed the country and the world that we’re not going to take this administration lying down. Now we have to back that up with sustained, continuous action, primarily in the form of calling our representatives and showing up to civic events for both local and national politics. This needs to be the beginning of a millions-strong movement, not the entirety of it.

Pissed off about something the Senate is doing? Call your Senators. Want a new piece of legislation to be introduced in the House? Call your Representative. That doesn’t just go for your Members of Congress (MoCs) in D.C. – you can call your state legislative reps as well. Call your governor’s office. Call your mayor’s office. Your city council reps. Show up to events – ask your MoCs when their next constituent event or town hall is. And then show up. Ask questions. Push them. Bring your friends and family with you and have them ask questions too. Largely agree with what your Rep does? Thank them, and ask them to make statements condemning actions that don’t fit with their values and to introduce legislation about issues that you care about. Largely disagree? Tell them so, loudly and repeatedly, and tell them what you want them to do instead. Tell them that you support the ACA, the Endangered Species Act, our National Parks, protecting the rights of women and POC, ending hate crimes, cracking down on police brutality, climate change, transportation, housing affordability, ANYTHING that you can think of that you support, and make them listen to you. Calls are great, showing up at events is even better. Get involved with local political groups and/or your local branch of the Democratic Party. Make politics look closer to the way you want them to look.

I’ll still be posting, hopefully about 3x a week, with concrete actions to take. But we’re in the middle of everything now, so we have to be proactive. Call, call, call, and show up, show up, show up. The Tea Party had pretty bad policies but extremely effective strategies – let’s beat them at their own game.

Do it now while you’re thinking about it! Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020. Better yet, October 6, 2018 and October 3, 2020, which will give you time to educate yourself on the issues, educate your friends and family, and get out the vote (and give you a time cushion if you do mail-in or absentee voting).

Voting in the midterm elections is so important! In 2018, Democrats have a lot of incumbent seats to protect in the Senate, and the Republican incumbents will be difficult to oust. But if you commit to voting now, and commit to also getting five of your friends to vote (and so on), it can make a difference. Let’s get Democrats back into the House and Senate. There will also probably be some local and state elections on your ballot, and those are super important too!

If you aren’t registered to vote, register now, while you’re thinking about it. Encourage family and friends to do the same. One less thing to think about when 2018 and 2020 roll around (or whenever your next local election is)! Once you’re registered, try your hardest to vote in all elections that you’re eligible to cast a vote in, from the smallest local elections to the presidential election every four years. The more that any given demographic reliably votes, the more politicians will value their opinions outside of election years (which is *partially* why older white people seem to have a lock on political influence – they vote really reliably).